


Up from Under

by Tabithian



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU, DCU - Comicverse, Godzilla (1998), Godzilla: The Series
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Crack, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-18
Updated: 2012-07-18
Packaged: 2017-11-10 06:25:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/463202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tabithian/pseuds/Tabithian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Hey, Earthworm Guy."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Up from Under

**Author's Note:**

> This started out as an AU of the 1998 Godzilla movie and the animated series that followed it and kind of changed on me partway through. :D?

"Hey, Earthworm Guy." 

Tim sighs. The samples he managed to collect are starting to blur before his eyes, which means he's gone too long with things like food, or sleep again. A bad habit, but one he never seems to break. Certainly not now with a giant mutated lizard menacing the city. (Giant mutated lizard, not dinosaur. Also, not so much "menacing" as unwittingly destroying the city. Everything its done is the collateral damage)

"That isn't actually my name." His parents were many things, but that particular kind of cruel, no.

"Don't care. I was told to get you."

Tim looks up, eyes narrowing. This guy. He's wearing a military uniform, but there's something not quite right. Tim's been seeing him here and there lately, most notably at the ship, watching Tim collect samples. "You're not military." Not military, no, but not a civilian either. 

That gets him a wolfish smile, gleam of teeth. "They said you were bright." He cocks his head, gives Tim a onceover. "You don't look like much, though."

No, he doesn't. He never has. Too skinny, too small. But that's changed a little in the last few years, toting his equipment into remote areas, setting up camp. Fieldwork's been good for him. Still too skinny, too small, though. That's not about to change anytime soon.

"Sorry to disappoint," Tim says, moving to put the table more fully between them. It's late, most of the camp is asleep, and the MPs passed by a few minutes ago. He could yell, but something in the way the guy's standing tells him that wouldn't be the best idea.

The guy's eyes narrow. "Grayson said to say he sent me. Mean anything?"

Does that mean anything. _Does it mean anything_. "Get out." Any residual uneasiness Tim may have felt - dark, mysterious men pretending to be in the military visiting his tent in the middle of the night when he's alone - is gone in a rush of anger. 

"Oooh, feisty," the guy says, mouth curving in obvious delight. "He really screwed you over, huh?" His smile softens. "He does that."

His own form of collateral damage, Tim knows, part and parcel of his job. Secret soemthingsomethingsomething, Tim never asked, knew better than to ask. Knows better than to give Dick another chance to, as Tim's visitor so charmingly put it, "screw him over".

"I don't know if you noticed," Tim says. "I don't know if _Dick_ noticed, but there's a giant mutated lizard out there." He won't say its menacing the city because that's not what it's doing. It's looking for nesting grounds, but Hicks and his superiors aren't listening. Even Steph, the far more reputable scientist between the two of them can't get them to listen. Tim's not even sure she believes him, but at least she listened.

The guy's eyebrows go up. "Really. Hadn't noticed that, thanks for pointing it out."

Tim. Tim _sighs_. This guy, whoever he is, is clearly one of Dick's people. No one else could be this aggravating. "What does he want?"

"Something about a giant mutated lizard." A smirk. "You know the military isn't going to do anything until it's too late, they think you're a nutjob."

"Thanks, I think," Tim says, annoyance giving way to faint - very faint - amusement.

"Look, you seem to be the only one around here who has an idea of what's going on with that damn lizard. Dick trusts you, or he wouldn't have sent me. You coming with me or what?"

And. Tim looks at the microscope, the sample that had offered up unexpected results. Results the military wasn't acting on, that would spell disaster if something wasn't done. "I'm going to regret this." He regrets a great many things, trusting Dick among them, but. This is - literally - bigger than them.

"Probably," the guy says, smiling like it's nothing to him. "You coming with me or what?"

As if Tim has a choice. "Do you have a name?" At least Tim will have a name to curse other than Dick's.

"Jason," Jason says, flashing another sharp smile at him. "Nice to meet you, Dr. Drake."

And. "...Tim." Tim says, gathering his things. "Call me Tim."

********

Dick makes his apologies, and they're certainly very sincere, but that doesn't mean Tim believes him. He'd been very sincere when he apologized last time.

“Okay,” Tim says. He understands, he does. Dick and his secret agency that deals with things like giant mutated lizards (someone has to), because that in no way sounds crazy. Dick and his secret agency that had basically sabotaged a year's worth of work because the director said so. (All they had to do was ask, Tim would have done it.)

“Tim - “

“More important things, Dick,” Tim says. Something Dick had said once, twice. Something he'd said when he was explaining why they'd done what they had, why they'd ruined Tim's work. (After that, earthworms had seemed the safer course. Not so much, anymore.)

Dick winces, and Tim tries not to feel guilty for that.

********

“I'm guessing you weren't expecting this.”

A dozen eggs at most, sure. Not. Not _this_.

“What gave you that idea?” Tim asks, staring at the eggs. _Hundreds_ of eggs.

“Problem?” Dick asks, static interfering with the comm lines. He's with the rest of the team on the other side of the building. Away from the nest.

Jason shares a look with Tim as he keys his mic. “Little bit, yeah.”

********

Tim stares at the giant mutated lizard – Godzilla, the news has been calling it – tangled in the bridge's cabling, and wonders if he did the right thing. (He knows he did, but wonders if he went about it the wrong way.)

********

“Hey, Earthworm Guy.”

“...That still isn't actually my name.” Still, it gets a smile from him. Small, tired, but still a smile.

“Don't care,” Jason says, coming up next to him. He looks at Tim, gives him a onceover. “I was told to get you.”

Tim sighs. It's been years, and he knows Dick had good reasons for what he did. Knows Dick could have gone about it differently. Wonders if Dick regrets that he didn't.

“Oh, he's still an ass,” Jason says, agreeably enough. “Doesn't mean he doesn't miss his little brother.”

And. “I'm not - “

“Neither am I,” Jason interrupts. “Doesn't stop him from acting like one.”

No, it wouldn't. 

“Did I mention he wants to offer you a job? Well, I say him, but really it's Bruce.”

Tim frowns. “Why - “

“The way Dick explains it,” Jason says, “is that he tried to get Bruce to bring you on before they fucked up your life.” 

Tim never knew that. “Really.”

Jason smiles, faint. “Bruce is, and you may not realize this, but he's kid of a bastard.”

 _Really_. Tim had no idea. “You don't say.”

Jason laughs. “Unbelievable, I know. Still.”

Tim doesn't even know what they want him to do. Bore them with the effects of radiation on earthworms? Done and done. Run around subduing giant monsters? He doesn't know where he'd start with that. This, Godzilla as the reporters were calling it, was a fluke, certainly. How often are they going to need someone with Tim's field of expertise?

“Think about it,” Jason says, looking at Tim. “At the very least tell Dick to shove it in person – and don't tell me that's not what you're thinking, I can see it on your face.”

Well. “I wasn't going to do that,” Tim protests. Think it? Oh, yes. Doesn't mean he could say it.

Jason snorts. “You should, it'd probably make him feel better.”

And. That. It probably would, is the thing. “You do this for a living?” Tim asks. He likes to think he would have heard something if they did.

“Eh.” Jason shrugs. “Not this big, no. We usually get to them before they hit a city like this.”

“And cover it up?”

Jason makes a face, eyes sliding away from Tim's. “...And cover it up, yeah.”

Tim shakes his head. “I'll think about it.”

“Telling Dick to shove it?”

Well, that too, but. “About taking the job,” Tim corrects, but he's smiling as he says it.


End file.
